Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn takes part in a community meeting at the Guru Har Rai Gurdwara Sahib temple

Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks at an anti-racism rally in London

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Labour candidate Gareth Snell on the campaign trail

Mr Batten said Labour were “frightened” and spoke up his party’s chances of trumping Mr Corbyn’s candidate Gareth Snell.

“They know that they are very close to losing here,” he said. “I can’t predict the outcome, you can never anticipate what [voters] are going to do [but] my feeling and most people have the feeling it’s close and we are very confident that we can actually win.

“So I think they’re desperate and they’re frightened because this isn’t just about them losing here, where they’ve been, I believe since 1950. They’ve had a Labour MP for that long.

“This is also about the future of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, so they are desperate.”

The Labour Party has since issued a statement condemning the content of the messages.

A campaign spokesperson said: “We were not aware of these text messages and we don’t condone the content. The campaign did not sanction the sending of these messages.”